By Patricia Staino
- Introduction
- The State of Education in the Early 20th Century
- Preserving the Legacy of Rosenwald Schools
- A Chapter Closes; the Foundation Laid
- North Carolina Rosenwald Schools on the National Register Study List
- North Carolina Rosenwald Schools Listed In The National Register Of Historic Places
- To Help with the Project
- Download the article
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A Chapter Closes; the Foundation Laid
Administrators of the fund shut down the school-building
program in 1932. Many believed it had failed to have the long-term, far-reaching
effect Julius Rosenwald had anticipated, and they wanted to turn the fund’s
focus to activities that would better promote interracial cooperation. They
were discouraged by studies that showed black education was falling even
further behind the education provided for white students. While the state’s
investment in black education increased from $1.28 million in 1919 to $4.53
million in 1927, the investment in white education jumped from $10.69 million
to $50.05 million in the same time period.
But many still believe the Rosenwald schools laid the foundation for the changes in the state’s education system that came later in the century. The program showed that the interest in public education existed in the community but that it needed federal intervention to thrive.
“These schools are important to the history of North Carolina as a whole, not just to African American history,” said Deanna Kerrigan at the Museum of History. “They really paint a picture of how resourceful rural communities were and are.”
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